Summary
Displays current snapshot or data over time? Current snapshot
Source data: Field (or metric)
Description: A specific type of live data table (grid view): choose two properties to define the rows and columns, and the relevant numerical values show in the middle where they intersect, with heatmap coloring, and sorting/limiting options
Use case example: Count of Companies, split by Owner and Phase
Who is this article for?
Planhat Users who are designing Dashboard and Presentation Pages (e.g. CS Ops)
What are Matrix Charts?
Matrix Charts are a type of "Table Widget". They are very similar to Metric Tables in that they show live numerical data in the middle of the table (e.g. count of Companies in the screenshot below), based on two properties you select to define the columns and the rows (e.g. Phase and Owner in the screenshot below).
Matrix Charts are unique in that they color cells based on the numerical values, like a heat map. You can customize the coloring, as well as the sorting of the columns and rows.
Like the other Table Widgets, Matrix Charts show a snapshot of the current data.
Why use Matrix Charts?
Matrix Charts are great if you want to look at how your choice of numerical data (e.g. count of Companies, or sum of ARR, or average CSM Score, etc.) is distributed based on your choice of two properties (qualitative categories, e.g. Owner and Phase, or Phase and Tier, or Tier and Region, and so on).
For example:
Average Company Health Score, across Pricing Plans and CSMs
Number of Products sold, by Product and Company Tier
Total ARR, by Region and Salesperson
You can choose to sort rows/columns by values, and together with the heat-map coloring, this enables easy ranking, showing what's the highest and what's the lowest, e.g. whose Companies have the highest average Health Score, and in which Phase do Companies have the highest average Health Score? Combining ranking and limiting in Matrix Charts enables you to easily see the "top X" or "bottom X" records.
The screenshot above shows an example of a Matrix Chart visualizing the count of Companies (the numbers in the middle of the table), split by Phase and Owner (the rows and columns).
This way, you can view the distribution of Companies, and identify patterns/outliers
You can easily see, for instance, whether one particular CSM has a very large number of Companies in Onboarding, a Phase that is likely to require a lot of work. If so, maybe they shouldn't be give more Companies to manage for the time being
Or does another of your CSMs have a lot of Companies in Churn Risk? That might indicate a problem - do they need some additional support/training?
You can even configure your own color "buckets" to replace the standard heat-map coloring - e.g. using red, yellow/amber and green to rank what you consider bad, medium and good results (e.g. average CSM Scores or Health Scores) - making it even easier to categorize your data and spot successes and potential issues.
Finally, it's possible to use Matrix Charts to plot text fields with lots of values, using "Advanced Matrix".
This means you have the ability to analyse large sets of unstructured and variable data (e.g. if you have a lot of different product variations/combinations) in a structured way
You can select custom text fields as the properties defining the columns and the rows, and the Matric Chart can calculate and sort 50,000+ unique custom text values in each direction, displaying up to 50 columns and 50 rows
Reach out to your CSM to enable the "Advanced matrix" permission for your tenant if you would like to use this feature and it isn't yet turned on for you
How to set up a Matrix Chart
The main steps are:
Choose a data model (object) - e.g. Company
Choose a "Value" - this will be the numbers in the middle of the table:
either "count" of records - e.g. number of Companies
or "sum", "average", "max" or "min" plus a "Property" - e.g. average of CSM Score
Choose properties to "Split by" (the rows) and "Group by" (the columns)
Optionally, choose how to sort/limit the rows and columns
Within a Dashboard or Presentation Page, click on "Table Widgets" and then "Matrix Chart"
You'll see a form that looks like this:
In the "Setup" tab
Choose an "Object" (i.e. data model), e.g. Company
In "Value", you specify what the numbers in the middle of the table will represent. Choose between:
"count" - this will count the number of records of that model, e.g. the number of Companies
"sum", "average", "max" or "min" - plus your choice of "Property" - e.g. sum of ARR
In "Split by category", specify the property to define the rows (such as Phase, Owner, Industry or Region)
In "Category Order by", choose whether to sort the rows by numerical values or alphabetically
In "Category Order by options", choose between ascending and descending order
In "Category Limit Results", you can choose limit the number of rows
In "Group by", specify the property to define the columns (such as Phase, Owner, Industry or Region)
In "Group Order by", choose whether to sort the columns by numerical values or alphabetically
In "Group Order by options", choose between ascending and descending order
In "Limit Results", you can choose limit the number of columns
In "Name", you can optionally enter a title for your Widget, which will display within the Widget
An alternative, particularly relevant for Presentation Pages, is to use a separate simple Text Widget if you would like different formatting options
In "Description", you can optionally add a description for your Widget
This will show in the Widget as a tooltip on an "i" icon
An alternative could be to use a simple Text Widget alongside your Matrix Chart
In the "Customization" tab
At the top you'll see a group of checkboxes that you can select or deselect:
"Hide ticks" - this hide the labels on the columns and rows
"Hide 'other'" - this excludes the "other" column or row if applicable
"Hide null / undefined" - this excludes the "null / undefined" column or row if applicable
"Custom colors"
"Choose palette" - here you can choose a different color palette if desired
You can create/edit color palettes via the "Settings" Global Tool
If you would like to define your own colored "buckets" (a bit like defining custom segments in Pie Charts) rather than using the heat-map colouring (turning cells darker when their value is higher), then click "+ Custom Color", define a numerical range, and select an appropriate color. Repeat this step for each "bucket" (range and color) you would like to define
Click "Add filters" in the top right of the chart preview if you'd like to add a filter
Here you can select a filter so that the Matrix Chart shows specific data (e.g. only Companies in the Enterprise Tier rather than all Companies)
You can either select from an existing "Company Filter" ...
... or build an "Advanced Filter" from scratch
When you've finished configuring your Matrix Chart, click the orange "Add widget" button in the bottom right
If you want to go back and edit your Matrix Chart later on, it's easy to do so. While viewing the Page in Edit mode, mouse over the Widget (Chart), and click on the pencil icon to open up the Widget setup form again.
Pro tips
As we've mentioned earlier in this article, you can use "Custom colors" in the "Customization" tab to create your own "buckets" (like custom segments) - this is great if the values in the middle of the table are considered good/medium/bad. See the screenshot below for an example
Click the image to view it enlarged
We also mentioned above the "Advanced Matrix" capabilities, activated via a tenant-level permission that your CSM can help you with. This means you can use text fields to build very large Matrix Charts, enabling you to bring structure to unstructured data - for instance, analyzing product data when you have a large number of product variations
Comparison with other Widgets
Matrix Charts have a lot of similarities with Metric Tables: both are live data tables showing category properties as the columns/rows and numerical data in the middle.
Here are the key differences:
| Matrix Chart | Metric Table |
Heat map coloring | Yes | No |
Custom "bucket" coloring | Yes | No |
Custom sorting of columns and rows | Yes | No |
Ability to click on cells (values) to see further details and jump to Company Profiles | Yes | No |
Totals on column and row headers | No | Yes |
The Matrix Chart is better if you have data that you'd like to be sorted, ranked and categorized. The Metric Table may be useful if you don't want to organize the data in that way.
Here's the same information displayed in a Matrix Chart (top) v. a Metric Table (bottom) - a count of Companies split by Owner and Phase.
Click on the images to view them enlarged
